BMW i3 Concept

BMW delivers the future of driving with its revolutionary new electric city car.

BMW has been hyping up its “Megacity Vehicle” for a couple of years now, and despite teasers about innovative tech features and full carbon-fiber body structures, we’ve withheld judgment, even when we spied one in the wild over the winter. But as of now, the shroud of mystery has been lifted about all the details except how the thing actually drives. Like a BMW? Like nothing before it? Maybe both?

The i3’s story begins with its LifeDrive architecture. According to BMW, experience with the Mini E and BMW ActiveE (the electric 1-series coupe) has proven that creating an electric car out of a structure designed to house an internal-combustion engine results in wasteful excess weight and imperfect packaging. As a result, the i3 (and the i8 sports car that was also just unveiled) is made up of two separate modules, which BMW calls Drive and Life.

The Drive portion, made of extruded and cast aluminum pieces, carries all the driveline and chassis components. For an optimized center of gravity, the i3’s large and flat battery, roughly the size of the floor, sits low in this section. It’s encased in aluminum and has a capacity of roughly 21 kWh. Because the car is still a few years from production, the exact specs have yet to be nailed down.

Mod Squad

The Life module sits atop the Drive components chassis, and houses passengers and luggage. As BMW has already announced, this structure consists of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, or CFRP, a first for any vehicle this side of a few exotic supercars. While the aluminum Drive module weighs 30 percent less than a similar steel structure, the weight reduction in the CFRP Life module is closer to 50 percent. The carbon-fiber shell weighs just 265 pounds and is attached to the Drive module in five locations with glue and screws. As a whole, the i3 weighs in at 2800 pounds, according to BMW. When speaking about the safety of CFRP, the company points to Formula 1 cockpits as proof of security. While metals require large crumple zones, carbon can be designed with special deformation elements that result in large amounts of energy being consumed in a very small space. A further benefit of the LifeDrive architecture, in the i3’s case, is the deletion of a driveshaft tunnel, allowing more space to be dedicated to the cabin. BMW says each set of seats (front and rear) is connected so that every passenger can leave from one side in a tight parking space, but we think someone at the company just really digs bench seats. There’s seven cubic feet of space left over in the rear for luggage, as well as a small compartment up front where the gas engine would usually be for stowing a charging cord or other small items.

Back inside the Drive structure, the i3 uses a 168-hp electric motor that’s 40 percent more compact than that of a Mini E, allowing it to fit right above the rear axle. Power is delivered to the wheels via a direct-drive single-speed transaxle. Yes, one speed. That means the car will never shift on its way up to a computer-limited top speed of 93 mph, which BMW has determined to be the point at which the batteries begin to drain too quickly. The company says the i3 will run 0 to 62 mph in 7.9 seconds. In terms of passing power, accelerating from 50 to 75 mph should take just six seconds.

Peak torque is 184 lb-ft. Range is estimated at 80 to 100 miles, and a full charge from a 240-volt source will take about six hours. With a special high-speed charger, the i3 is said to be capable of reaching an 80-percent charge in just an hour, meaning medium-range drives can be done with just a long coffee break in the middle. But wait, there’s more, as the infomercial folks might say.

Keep Going and Going and Going

Feedback from Mini E drivers showed that 90 percent of them were content with a driving range of under 100 miles, but for the outlying minority, BMW has (somewhat surprisingly) decided to offer the i3 with an optional range extender BMW calls REx. The company is mum on official details for the time being, but we do know that it will be a two-cylinder displacing about 600 cc and based on an engine in the BMW family. Think a modified motorcycle engine optimized to run at fewer—and quieter—rpm in an effort to be as transparent as possible. The engine meets strict SULEV standards and features auto stop-start capabilities. While BMW claims the extender doubles the i3’s range to about 190 miles, thus eliminating range anxiety from the electric-car equation, it also eliminates some practicality as the engine, generator, and fuel tank reduce the seven-cubic-foot cargo space to something far less useful.

Another pricey option BMW divulged is a bit of Star Trek technology called inductive charging. Small electronics have been able to take advantage of this for a few years now (GM plans to offer inductive device charging in some vehicles next year), but charging an iPod is far different from charging an i3. Inductive charging uses magnetic fields to transmit electricity to the battery wirelessly, meaning that all a driver has to do is pull the i3 into a garage equipped with, say, a charger embedded in the floor, and the car will automatically start to charge. There’s no cord to connect. It will be expensive, but, as one engineer told us, has the potential for fewer losses than conductive charging. BMW promises a demonstration later this year, which we eagerly anticipate. (We saw the tech at work on a Tesla Roadster at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.)

Among the i3’s other energy-saving details are familiar concepts like the “air curtain” first seen on the updated 2011 1-series, which smoothes airflow around the front wheels, as well as narrow, drag-reducing tires. Like the accelerator in a Tesla Roadster, the i3’s go pedal is tuned so that the car will still coast if the driver lifts just slightly, while lifting entirely off the pedal will engage regenerative braking based on pedal position. BMW predicts that, in around-town driving, this will allow the brake pedal to go untouched 75 percent of the time.

Beyond that, a button-activated Eco Pro mode changes throttle response so that the same pedal travel delivers less power. In this mode, speed is capped anywhere between 56 and 74 mph, and climate-control output is reduced. However, because the batteries use the climate system to stay at an operating temperature of 68 degrees, the system always remains running to some extent. Eco Pro can extend range by as much as 20 percent. Truly distressed drivers will be able to fall back on Eco Pro +, a mode that shuts down daytime running lights and any other non-vital energy drains, limits climate control functions to a minimum, caps speed at 56 mph, and tells the driver to get bent when he dives into the accelerator. Oh brave new world, with such vehicles in it.

So This is What the Future Looks Like

Design-wise, you can judge for yourself whether the i3 is a hip little car, but it certainly looks future-intensive. The rear doors open up rearward (their operation likely will require the front doors to be opened first), and the layering of light-gray panels over a black and clear layer is meant to reference the car’s division of Life and Drive components. Both this i3 and the i8 get a BMW roundel with a blue ring around the outside and blue accents on the grilles and side sills. “Stream flow,” which describes the C-pillar’s exposed glass section defined by lines converging like air streaks in a wind tunnel, is the Hofmeister kink of BMW i. Our first look inside the cabin, it appears, will have to wait until later.

The i3 is still in its concept stage, so some minor details could still change before its launch in calendar year 2013. We expect it also will be some time before we know more about how much the thing will cost. But for now, we must say BMW has our attention.

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